This archive report was first published on 18 June 2021.
On June 9, 2021, the Senate's Agriculture Committee directed the receiver manager, Ponangipalli Venkata Ramana Rao, to re-advertise the bid to salvage Mumias Sugar Company within 14 days.
However, activist Okiya Omtatah has moved to court seeking to temporarily suspend this directive, alleging that Rao engaged in a secretive bidding process to identify a strategic investor for the company.
According to Omtatah, Rao secretly invited eight investors, including Catalysis Group of Russia, Sarrai Group of Uganda, and Kibos Sugar and Devki Group from Kenya, to bid for the company.
It has emerged that none of the eight bidders had the capacity to revive the company, leading to fears that a plan was underway to dispose of the company to Rao's cronies for a song.
Omtatah also claimed that Rao has mismanaged the ethanol operations and shut them down in March 2021, thus halting all manufacturing operations at the company.
He further alleged that Rao has neglected many assets of Mumias Sugar Company, including the Nucleus Estate and machinery, resulting in the company making huge losses due to the deterioration of the assets.
As a result, Omtatah is seeking an order to freeze the bids for Mumias Sugar Company's revival, citing concerns over Rao's conflict of interest and potential mismanagement of the company's assets.
